SEATTLE (Reuters) – A Seattle-based investment group led by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen has signed a binding agreement to buy a controlling interest in the Sacramento Kings basketball team, paving the way for a return of professional basketball to a city still pining for the loss of its SuperSonics in 2008.

Terms of the deal, announced by Hansen’s group and confirmed on Monday by the National Basketball Association, were not disclosed. The NBA must approve the deal and that could take several months.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – At the giant plant north of Seattle where most 787 Dreamliners are made, Boeing Co mechanics and engineers darted back and forth quickly and quietly on Wednesday, readying aircraft for delivery even as U.S. authorities grounded them.

Across the highway from the Everett plant at Paine Field airport, a line of completed 787s stood gleaming in the bright afternoon sun beneath the snow-capped Cascade mountains, waiting to be picked up by their owners.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Holiday-season sales of personal computers fell for the first time in more than five years, according to tech industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp’s new Windows 8 operating system failed to excite buyers and many instead opted for tablet devices and smartphones.

The slump caps a miserable year for PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo Group and Dell Inc, which saw the first annual decline for more than a decade with no immediate signs of relief.

SEATTLE, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Holiday-season sales of personal
computers fell for the first time in more than five years,
according to tech industry tracker IDC, as Microsoft Corp’s
new Windows 8 operating system failed to excite buyers
and many instead opted for tablet devices and smartphones.

The slump caps a miserable year for PC makers such as
Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo Group and Dell Inc
, which saw the first annual decline for more than a
decade with no immediate signs of relief.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – China’s Lenovo Group Ltd, on track to become the world’s No.1 personal computer maker, is leveraging on what it calls the “PC plus” era as the company ramps up its plant capacity in major markets including the United States.

PC demand growth has waned over the past year as more consumers flock to ultraportable and increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones for basic computing. Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell and other stalwarts of the PC industry are now fighting to sustain growth as tablet computers eat into their PC-related businesses.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has sold 60 million licenses and upgrades for its new Windows 8 operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch, one of the top executives of the company’s Windows unit said at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

The figure marks a solid but unspectacular start for Microsoft’s new flagship product, which has not managed to revive lagging personal computer sales, while new touch-screen Windows devices have not yet captured consumers’ imaginations.

LAS VEGAS, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has
sold 60 million licenses and upgrades for its new Windows 8
operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch, one of the
top executives of the company’s Windows unit said at the
Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

The figure marks a solid but unspectacular start for
Microsoft’s new flagship product, which has not managed to
revive flagging personal computer sales this year, while new
touch-screen Windows devices have not yet captured consumers’
imaginations.

BELLEVUE, Washington (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his company’s record on innovation and financial performance at the annual shareholders’ meeting, but conceded that he should have moved faster to get into the booming tablet market dominated by Apple Inc’s iPad.

Bill Gates, co-founder and now chairman of the world’s largest software company, was one of the first to champion tablet-sized devices more than 10 years ago, but Microsoft failed to come up with a product that worked as well as the iPad. Gates was silent throughout the meeting, attended by about 450 shareholders.

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit, setting a faster pace than Windows 7 three years ago.

The sales number represents a solid but unspectacular start for the touch-friendly operating system designed to combat Apple Inc’s and Google Inc’s domination of mobile computing, which has shunted aside PCs in favor of iPads and smartphones.

About Bill

"Bill Rigby is Reuters' chief correspondent in Seattle, reporting on Microsoft and Boeing and overseeing coverage of general news in Washington state, Oregon and Alaska.
He has been a Reuters journalist since 1998, reporting on banks, insurers, stock markets, defense companies and airlines from Reuters bureaux in London, New York and Seattle."